South Side school fully embracing technology to teach students

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) - Technology is changing the way kids are learning, and one school on the city's South Side is fully embracing it.

Classrooms look different now. Long gone are the days of being told to put away your cell phone. Teachers at Andrew Carnegie Elementary in the Woodlawn neighborhood are using them instead to teach.

“If they don't learn the way we teach, we have to teach the way they learn. Our kids are like mobile kids. They are technology savvy and we just need to capitalize on what they're already doing,” said Principal Docilla Pollard of Andrew Carnegie Elementary.

That’s why principal pollard decided to embrace the technology, incorporating it from apps to virtual reality.

"They're excited to be able to use their own personal technology or any mobile device, their Chromebooks or iPads, to travel and see things they've never seen before,” Pollard said.

One seventh grade class is exploring and learning about caves. While a second grade class is taking a trip to the pyramids.

"Growing up in a neighborhood like this, when I couldn't go anywhere else. They get to see things like this and it's really exciting to go to Egypt,” said 2nd grade teacher Javee Hernandez.

The technology they're using is from Nearpod. It connects through cell phones, tablets and computers.

Teachers say using virtual reality really drives home the point of the lesson.

"They remember the word hieroglyphics, whereas you would show it to them in a book and they'd forget and it wasn't as exciting,” Hernandez said.

Now, kids in all grades are getting a chance to travel while sitting in their classrooms.

This is the first year Carnegie Elementary has used this technology. The principal hopes this will translate to higher test scores, more student engagement and less disciplinary issues.